Dodgers Exercise Option To Bring Dave Roberts Back As Manager In 2019

Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts with Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora, and Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman before Game 5 of the World Series last month at Dodger Stadium. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

The Los Angeles Dodgers have picked up the option on Dave Roberts, who will continue to manage the team next season with the hope they can negotiate a longer term deal over time.

Andrew Friedman, the team’s president of baseball operations, had 10 days after the end of the World Series to exercise that option. Tuesday was that day.

“We exercised the option and remain optimistic about working something out long term,” Friedman said. “The reason that we slowed down a little bit is that we’ve had a lot of coaching staff decisions to make and interviews.

“I think it speaks more to the optimism that something definitely’s going to get done and allows us to focus on what we need to do in the near term.”

The Dodgers lost the World Series for the second consecutive postseason, this time to the Boston Red Sox in five games, on Oct. 28. Last year, they dropped a seven-game series to the Houston Astros.

The final games of both series were played at Dodger Stadium and were settled by the same score of 5-1.

It’s been a chaotic time for the Dodgers since the loss. Farhan Zaidi, their general manager, left on Monday for the San Francisco Giants where he has taken the position of president of baseball operations, essentially replacing Bobby Evans, who was fired near the end of an 89-loss season.

That followed quick negotiations to retain star pitcher Clayton Kershaw, who had three days after the Series to opt out of his contract with two years and $65 million remaining. The Dodgers and Kershaw extended the deadline, finally agreeing to a third year, making the total value of the deal $93 million.

But now, there's a gaping hole in the Dodgers baseball operations department, one that Friedman said he may not be ready to fill, either from inside or outside the organization.

Josh Byrnes is his vice president of baseball operations and would be a perfect fit. Byrnes has the experience as general manager with the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres. For the Dodgers, he’s now in charge of amateur scouting and the minor league system.

“He’s obviously extremely qualified,” Friedman said about Byrnes. “He’s made a significant impact with our amateur process and our player development group. Those are two areas that are really highly functioning, performing at high levels. And he’s a big part of that. I’m not sure [the new position] makes sense. But he’s a big part of what we’ve done and will continue to be.”

Roberts was a coach with the Padres when Byrnes was general manager. He managed one game in 2015 when Bud Black was fired, but wasn’t even interviewed for the job after the season. It went to Andy Green, who is 76 games under .500 since.

Roberts was highly-recommended to Friedman by Byrnes and was interviewed for the Dodgers managing job when Don Mattingly departed after they were eliminated in the first round of the 2015 postseason.

Nicknamed Doc because of his initials (D.R.), Roberts has taken the Dodgers to the National League Championship Series and the World Series twice in his three seasons as manager without getting to the promised land.

He’s 287-200 with a .589 winning percentage and has won the NL West three times. The Dodgers, sporting the highest payroll in the league for most of his tenure, have won West titles six years running, the first three under Mattingly. Roberts was voted 2016 Manager of the Year in the NL by the Baseball Writers's Association of America. He's one of the lowest paid managers in Major League Baseball at $1 million per annum.

Roberts said in the immediate wake of the World Series that he hoped to remain in his current job.

“Well, my plan is to manage the Dodgers,” he said. “I love the city. I love the organization. Everything that it’s about. I love the high expectations, and that’s the way it should be. I can always get better.”

Right now, he has at least one more year to do just that.

Barry M. Bloom is a contributing columnist for Forbes.com. He can be found on Twitter at @boomskie.